Potpourri of wastage, blighting and suppressed free speech

# It would be nice if Olle Johansson, professor The Experimental Dermatology Unit Department of Neuroscience Karolinska Institute 171 77 Stockholm Sweden could give more details:

In Sweden, a number of taxpayer money-based research organizations and foundations, including a governmental ministry, have been revealed to have used huge amounts of the taxpayer’s money (money meant for research) instead for private birthday celebration parties, luxury spa weekends, very posh castle visits, expensive dinners, night club shows, “development projects” that can not be accounted for, etc., etc., etc.

The list of people, titles and places banning The Slog gets ever broader, as does the range of MSM titles overtly embarassed by being so often behind the music. To be banned by the New York Times, the Federal Reserve, the Kremlin, the EU Commission, all Washington government buildings, The Guardian, The Mail, China, Argentina, the Foreign Office, India, Albuquerque and Huffington Post seems to me a range in search of a pattern, which is probably as it should be.

Only thing I need to work out is what these “rippers” are meant to be. Something online it seems.

Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash have been spent by ministers to explain David ­Cameron’s Big Society to civil servants. The revelation confirms fears that even top civil servants do not understand the PM’s idea for encouraging volunteering and giving local communities more power. Documents obtained by the Sunday Mirror show three Whitehall departments hired an organisation to “translate” the Big Society to officials. They ­attended brainstorming sessions and team-building exercises in a “collaboration ­laboratory” run by Common Purpose.

The Home Office, the ­Department for Communities and Local Government, and the Department for the ­Environment and Rural Affairs paid £12,044 for the course last year. The project – called “How do we translate Big Society into effective community safety actions, while meeting the ­challenges of the Spending Review?” – was revealed under a Freedom of Information ­request.

Labour MP Phil Wilson said: “It’s no wonder that the Government is having to waste money on explaining what it means by the Big Society to its own civil servants, they don’t understand it and the public aren’t being fooled by it. “The Big Society is cover for cuts to our public services that are going too deep, too fast and people are seeing straight through the Tory-led ­Government’s spin.” Common Purpose, which calls itself an “independent not-for-profit organisation”, said the cost was shared between the three departments.

That’s really rich, seeing as how Labour were the ones who set up Common Purpose out of the ODPM.

# Done deals on the North Devon and South Wales coasts:

One of the world’s largest offshore windfarms – the ‘Atlantic Array‘ – is proposed to be built between the North Devon and South Wales coasts. It would consist of between 188 and 278 turbines, up to 720 feet high.

It would be less than 9 miles from the North Devon coast, 8 miles from Lundy Island and 14 miles from Gower. It would cover 92 square miles of the Bristol Channel.

These coastlines are some of the most unspoilt natural landscapes and seascapes in the country. They are Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and include a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the UK’s first Marine Conservation Zone and huge swathes of National Trust protected land.

Both North Devon and Gower are fragile economies, heavily dependent on landscape-based tourism. The Bristol Channel is a unique marine environment, containing rare and protected species.

RWE npower Renewables hold the development rights for Zone 8 (The outer Bristol Channel). See the zones here:

Just like the Severn barrage they are trying to build these things to meet the EU’s renewables targets and then find they are illegal under the EU directives for protecting habitats.

In total we are supposed to build another 10,000 ‘windmills’ in 8 years. The fact that it is impossible seems to have escaped the government’s notice. A number of manufacturers have gone bust. For offshore they can’t even manage to instal one a week and there have been reports that the ones already in place are breaking down or needing to be replaced as they can’t stand up to conditions at sea. It’s one big farce and we’re paying for it.